100% IMPACT
Impact Investing is the act of investing in for-profit businesses with the intention of generating financial returns alongside measurable, positive social and environmental impact.
100% of EFM’s funds are invested with the intention of creating tangible, and enduring social and environmental impact alongside robust financial returns. We do not believe that impact outcomes necessarily require sacrificing financial returns, in fact, our experience suggests that the two are inextricably linked and are mutually re-enforcing. Further, we are committed to preserving the impact we enable via management actions both during and after our ownership.
COMMITTED TO THE LONG-TERM
Recognizing that forestland assets can be commercially productive for over 50-100 years, our fund tenures are structured to match the long-lived nature of these extraordinary assets. EFM launched the first evergreen, open-ended, forestry fund in 2004 in which it currently manages 10,000 acres. This permanent capital vehicle is designed to hold and manage productive forestland for the long-term, allowing EFM to refine silviculture techniques that balance ecological and financial goals in a commercial context.
FIELD NOTE SEE ALL
Refining Retention
A key component of EFM’s timber harvests is keeping or retaining trees for wildlife, slope stability, and as biological legacies; this approach to retaining trees in harvest units is called variable retention harvesting, and was developed by Dr. Jerry Franklin and other forest managers in the early 1990s in response to criticisms of the ecological, recreational, and visual impacts of clearcutting. A recent update to our variable retention guidelines further specifies targets for maximum openings, how retained trees are distributed, and what species and types of trees are kept, with an eye to ecological value, future harvests, resistance to wind throw, and logger and public safely.
PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
EFM knows that public and private actors must come together to solve the world’s toughest challenges. Hence, we seek out mutually beneficial partnerships with foundations, public agencies, and non-profits to support our forest management objectives on private land. We harness below-market capital from foundations to enable positive impacts like carbon storage and we fund restoration and conservation projects on our properties with capital from public agencies and philanthropic groups. We work with local watershed groups and councils to create opportunities for youth employment and implement high-priority restoration projects that directly benefit local communities.